VAT group reorganisations

Are you part of a group of companies? If you are then it is most likely that you have some intra group supplies. Currently these probably attract VAT and depending on your status some of this may not be recoverable in full. Often in a group situation one group member acts as the service provider and deals with all matters such as rent and overheads and if this results in some exempt supplies for VAT purposes then it is likely that you will suffer some irrecoverable VAT.

One way of avoiding this is a group registration covering all or some of the group businesses so that transactions between the members of the group take place without any VAT consequences. With careful planning it may be possible to eliminate all irrecoverable VAT and also streamline your VAT accounting.

The downside of a group registration is that you start with a new VAT number for all members of the group and your systems need to be adequate to consolidate the VAT movements of all members of the group on to one return but this can have significant advantages.